New paintings and regular art updates.
My hubby, forty years together and we are both getting old. Various marker pens on cartridge paper. He didn’t keep still or I would have done a better job on it. I’ve bought a few more permanent marker pens. Some are OK, but some seriously smell of something like acetone? I used a silver pen to try and add grey to his hair and reflections/highlights on his face.
This was a painting I did for the local Lions group in 2019. I paint cats, but not big cats, so it was something a bit different. I’ve seen art where people paint each individual hair on an animal but I am more impressionistic and try and get feeling into my paintings, to give them character. This is another acrylic on canvas. I’m glad he went to a good home.
By the way did you know that occasionally female lions grow mains too? Interesting fact.
In exchange for some pears my friend gave me some flowers. I thought how kind, I wasn’t expecting anything back. The roses are a mellow red colour, and there are pale purple Fushias and white roses and some different white flowers.
Apparently the Victorians used to give different meanings to different plants. For instance Forget-me-nots. I think also Pansies and Lily of the Valley. I don’t know the meanings, but I know people used to press flowers within the pages of heavy books. Or even flower presses. The idea was to squash the flower so it became dried and flattened. If the person pressing it was artistic it could be used in artwork, some of them would be used for illustration purposes. I’m not sure how they would have coped with larger flowers like multi petal led or stemmed flowers. I guess they would have needed more steady pressure? Sorry, a lot of this is speculation. My mind wanders across different thoughts….
I’m drawing at home with a little group called band of sketchers on Facebook. It’s an offshoot of urban sketchers and it means that I draw at home every couple of days. I avoid going out much these days as I want to avoid coming into contact with people.
One day I will feel better, but for now I’m hiding in my little shell and avoiding coughs and sneezes.
I have enjoyed keeping my drawing skills up. A lot of the sketches are done really fast, but that doesn’t make it any less fun. Our small group are challenging each other to learn new techniques and improving our observation skills.
Lots of stuff,
on window ledges,
filling space,
shared with cats,
plants are growing,
decorated with things,
collected,
ornamented,
sketched and recorded.
Gathering moss,
unable to leave things,
remove things,
bin things,
Hoarder?
Maybe
Quick sketch, layers for #bandofsketchers. Just a pile of washing on the settee with the cat in attendance. Not very exciting I’m afraid. I woukd have liked to have drawn the layers of a cake, or layers of rock in a cliff, or even layers of clothes that someone is wearing, or layers of cloud, but I didn’t have much choice as I haven’t been out today. It’s a bit garish, but I love pattern and colour, so it will do.
Finding things that I haven’t seen for years. There is a set of old slides that I might try and get turned into photos. I’ve also seen an app where you can convert negatives to photos on your phone, which is great, but I already have them in albums and do I need more on my devices? I wish I still had the painting but it was sold to the local MP at the time. I think it ended up at the house of commons!
This was a friend years ago. I painted it with the idea that the perspective of the window gave it an interesting effect. The figure looks large in comparison to the shelves across the window. I also liked the slightly twisted pose. It’s an oil on canvas.
Triple portrait. I painted this more than twenty years ago. It was from a photo and the workwas a commission. Unfortunately I only have this blurry photo. I think I have a better one somewhere. The painting was called breakfast. Acrylic on canvas.
Just found this from June 2019,i was out sketching with #uskstoke at the national urban sketchers meeting in Stoke-on-Trent. We were due to meet in Leeds this year, but of course it was cancelled. This is a drawing of the Arnold Bennett sculpture in Hanley. This is the city centre of Stoke-on-Trent. I think I must have spent quite a while drawing it. Oh come back 2019!
Some things are still being sold despite covid19. I think I could design some interesting patterns to use on masks (and bags and tee shirts perhaps). I’m good at choosing colours and creating patterns. Maybe it’s an idea I should persue with one of the the online sales sites. I think the tee shirt idea is probably better but you never know…..
I’ve always been shy of having a go, but I’m going to research the whole thing a bit more over the next month. I know of some sites, ebay, etsy, then redbubble, spoonflower and square share or something? It’s hard to navigate them all? Will they charge a lot of commission? How do you market things? I will learn.
Mallaband-Brown